Computers and other electronic equipment seem to be smaller and less expensive each year. The semiconductor industry is constantly reducing the size of their product, adding more functions at a lower price in less space to meet the needs of the consumer. Even with all the shrinking which must be performed, the overall performance of computers and other electronic equipment is limited by the capability of the manufacturer to interconnect the integrated circuit devices within the computers and other electronic equipment. Further reduction in the size of the integrated circuit devices and their associated interconnects is limited, particularly by inherent resistance losses.
Electronics manufacturers are putting more die into smaller packages to reduce the size of their products. More die in smaller packages demand wiring that is as short as possible. But even reducing techniques reach a limitation when the speed of a computer or other electronic device has been optimized. The only way to gain performance at this point is to move the information along the wires faster.
A patent application titled, "Device Packaging Using Heat Spreaders And Assisted Deposition Of Wire Bonds" U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/575,744 by Wills et al., and assigned to Texas Instruments Incorporated, has recently been submitted to the U.S. patent office. In this patent application, metal interconnects are direct deposited onto a substrate to connect an integrated circuit to the outside world. The Wills et al. patent application represents one of several reducing techniques. Others are working on wave guided signals for integrated circuits, but to date, no one has addressed how to connect fine wave guides on an integrated circuit to another circuit. Fiber optics can be used to move data at the speed of light, but fiber optic cables are large, bulky and hard to interconnect to an integrated circuit at specific locations.
What is needed is an interconnect system which can perform at the speed of light and be as small as the integrated circuits which it is connecting.